Quick Stats: Drew Scott, host, HGTV’s “Property Brothers”
Daily Driver: 2017 Tesla Model S (Drew’s rating: 11 on a scale of 1 to 10)
Other cars: see below
Favorite road trip: Vancouver to Rocky Mountains
Car he learned to drive in: 1980s Chrysler E-Class
First car bought: 1980s Chrysler E-Class
After years of black BMWs, Drew Scott is now firmly in the Tesla camp with his 2017 Model S.
“I’m a Tesla boy, it’s an amazing car,” Scott, the co-star of HGTV’s hit Property Brothers says. “I have the 100D. It’s the fastest car in the market. It’s a beautiful car. It’s doing better things for the planet. It’s got all the technology you could possibly want—it’s the smoothest drive I’ve ever had.”
Scott rates the Tesla an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. “It’s more than perfect,” he says. “It’s an awesome car. The only thing I can complain about, which is a funny thing, is that this car does not have the little clothing hooks that you would hang your jacket in. That is literally the only thing I can complain about.”
Scott likes the self-driving option and its navigation. “If I’m on the highway and it’s bumper to bumper, it’ll self-drive,” he says, adding that he can summon it out of a tight parking spot without being in the car. “The funniest thing, too, the GPS, in all the vehicles I’ve had over the years—Chrysler, BMW—the GPS, they’re good, but if I’m doing voice activation, it doesn’t always get the name of the street. This thing gets anything I say, and it’s going to spell it exactly and it’ll get me there. I love it.”
The power (and all-wheel-drive traction) was noticeable when he switched to the Tesla. “This car is crazy. … With this vehicle, there’s no delay [as on a non-electric car]. It just goes. And that was a little bit of getting used to.”
Even though Scott likes having the self-driving option, he says people still need to be aware behind the wheel. “My whole thing, which it even says, there’s a warning that pops up on the screen,” he says. “Anybody who tries to do something like that or if they’re blindly following the GPS, that’s a bit of your own fault. You still have to pay attention. … But the car has sensors. It’s going to stop if it feels something. They even told me, for example, if you’re self driving on the highway and you want to change lanes, I can signal and when it’s clear it’ll change lanes on its own.”
Scott points out that driving in Los Angeles, where he spends a lot of time, one has to be extra careful. “Like here in L.A., motorcyclists are allowed to drive between lanes between cars,” he says. “If you have someone whipping up between the lanes, it’s not going to see it right away, so that’s why you always have to still pay attention.”
He also feels that Elon Musk wouldn’t release something that wasn’t properly tested. “When [Tesla is] ready to launch the full self-drive, I’m already ready for that, but he’s not going to release something on the market until it has been tested and it’s fully ready.”
Scott loves his Tesla so much, with all the travel he does, it’s shipped to go with him. “The Tesla is my car. I’m in a different city every two to three months for filming, so it travels from city to city with me,” he says.
2014 BMW 3 Series
Rating: 8
“I got my first BMW back in 2001, and it’s always been a good car,” he says.
Over the years, he’s had five BMWs. “It’s back at my Vegas house, and I leave it there so if the family and friends are in town, it’s something nice for them to drive. They’re still gorgeous cars, I love BMW,” he says. “And mine’s the hybrid as well, so it’s a great car but it still has great power.”
This was Scott’s daily driver before the Tesla. “It’s still a gorgeous car, it’s amazing,” he says. “But the Tesla definitely has its advantages—technology, as well as the fact that it’s fully electric, so it’s a car that’s making a statement that’s definitely doing something good for the planet.”
Scott says the BMW is a great car, but it’s a tad tight for Scott, who is over 6’4”. “The back seats … were a little small, and the Tesla has a ton of room,” he says. “A lot of cars, I have to put the seat as far back as I can put it. With the Tesla I actually have to pull it forward a little bit, and it still gives a ton of room in the back seat. Very comfortable, especially for a tall guy. It’s a little bit larger, but I didn’t have any problem adapting.”
Scott and his brother Jonathan also keep their two Chrysler 300s in Vegas, as well, for family and friends to drive. “That was originally to support American made, and it’s great,” he says. “I can’t knock the car aside from the gas consumption. The car has a lot of space. It’s very spacious, so if you’re doing a trip, it’s great. But for me, I do not like a gas-guzzler, and that’s the main reason that I originally got the BMW, because it has a lot more fuel efficiency.”
Car He Learned to Drive In
Scott was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, growing up in a town called Maple Ridge, where he learned to drive in his first car, a late 1980s Chrysler E-Class, when he was 16. Scott and his brother shared that first car.
“My parents had some Chryslers before I did,” he says. “This car, the funny thing to me was it had the voice. Back in that time most cars were pretty basic, but this car we thought it was the bee’s knees because it had the voice activation.”
“If your washer fluid is low, for example, it would say, ‘You’re washer fluid is low’ or tell the driver, ‘Your door is ajar.’ At first we thought it was just so awesome, all our friends at school are going to think we’re awesome, until two weeks of it nonstop talking to us, it drove me insane,’” he says.
Scott grew up on a ranch and learned to drive initially on the ranch truck around the property. Then he and his twin brother pooled their money to buy the Chrysler, which is what he learned to drive in.
“We shared a vehicle a lot of the time,” he says. “It was easy for us to share. We had the same friends, and we worked at the same places. We always had to work hard and make our own dollar if we ever wanted to do a big purchase like that. My parents never handed anything to us.”
At the time they worked as busboys at Red Robin to buy the Chrysler. “But we always had side projects, we were clowns for Parks and Rec. And we would have different things on the go,” Scott says. “Jonathan and I were go-getters right from back in the early days, always something on the go with us—fundraising, doing something.”
Scott didn’t have the Chrysler long, though. The two saved up, and within a year, bought a red 1988 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe. “It was the sportiest car,” he says. “At the time it had full technology inside, it had the full computer, so all our friends thought we were the coolest in the school because here we were grade 10 and we had this cool Thunderbird Turbo Coupe.”
In Vancouver at the time they could get their licenses and drive at 16. “The learner’s license was only for three months, and then you have your full license,” he says. “I think it’s even earlier than that in Alberta, because we were back and forth between Alberta a little bit. Now, I think there’s definitely more restrictions, but it got me on the road early.”
Favorite Road Trip
Although Scott doesn’t have the time now to road trip, it was something he did a lot back in Vancouver. “That was our thing with our friends when we were growing up in our teen years and then into our young 20s,” he says. “We would just road trip from Vancouver anywhere. So whether it was going across to Alberta through the Rocky Mountains down the Oregon coast, that was probably the two that we did the most of. I loved it. Going through the Rocky Mountains, it’s some of the most beautiful country ever.”
Scott recalls the drives included some dangerous roads, too. “There’s some sketchy roads along the mountain, some sheer drops on one side, but I loved just cruising in the summer with the windows down with the music blaring across the Rocky Mountains,” he says.
Scott’s schedule now includes renovating 50 houses a year, with his brother. He recently did a 13 city “House Party Tour” across the country to promote their book It Takes Two: Our Story. For part of it they were on a tour bus. The two also film shows in the U.S. as well as in Canada.
“It’s a really, really tight schedule,” he says. “If you’ve noticed, I like to keep a busy schedule.”
Property Brothers airs on HGTV Wednesdays at 9 p.m. A new season of Brother vs. Brother: Jonathan vs. Drew will return in May, and Property Brothers: Buying & Selling will be back in July on the cable network.